International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6 Issue-6, August 2017
Design of a Smart Energy Meter with Overload
Trip Facilities
Naeem Javed, Muhammad Aamir Shafi, Nasrullah Khan, Mohsin Khan
Abstract: Nowadays for running the domestic electric appliances
like lamp, Motor and Air Conditioner, one of the most commonly
used energy source is Electric energy. This is the reason that
electric energy has become quite important in the daily life of
people. In Pakistan, WAPDA (Water and Power Development
Authority) is the main company whose sole purpose is the
generation and distribution of electrical energy throughout the
country and the consumer will have to pay according to the use of
electrical energy. There are other companies that also generate
electrical energy and distribute it to some of the area like
K-electric and IPPS. So, a consumer knows how much energy has
been consumed by the domestic electrical appliances when an
employee of WAPDA checks the energy meter once a month and
charged according to the units consumed in a month. In such a
manner, a consumer does not get any information that how much
energy has been consumed and he will have to pay a large amount
of bill as he is unaware of his energy consumption. This way he is
unable to manage his load according to his requirements. In this
project, we are going to design a prototype of Three Phase smart
energy meter. In order to make a conventional energy meter smart
we are going to interface a microcontroller and GSM module with
the energy meter. The purpose of microcontroller is that through
this we are going to measure current and voltage for all the three
phases and from these readings power will be calculated because
we need to know the consumption before its management. For
each phase, a user can set a predefined value of load, whenever
this limit exceeds the user will get a message for that phase that
the “system is overload”. This will inform him about his load and
after that he will manage his load accordingly. So, our designed
prototype has got two advantages, first one is that user can set a
threshold value of energy and the other one is that consumer will
be informed whenever the threshold value of energy is exceeded.
This will be beneficial for the user and also for the electric energy
providing company. The meter will be trip on high usage of energy
and WAPDA will be informed whenever there is short circuit. So,
this can also provide safety for the domestic users. In the designed
project, we have proposed different ways of reclosing the relay for
each and every Phase as we have three Phases. User can reclose
the first Phase just by pressing a touch button while the second
phase will reclose automatically after a delay of one minute. A
user can change this delay. The third Phase will reclose after a
delay of two minutes in a condition that the user has managed his
load otherwise it will remain open.
Index Terms: Energy Meter, GSM modem, Arduino
Microcontroller, Smart Grid.
Revised Version Manuscript Received on July 26, 2017.
Naeem Javed, Department of Electrical Engineering, COMSATS
Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan, E-mail:
naeemkhan5602@gmail.com
Muhammad Aamir Shafi, Department of Electrical Engineering,
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan,
E-mail: aamirshafi@ymail.com
Nasrullah Khan, Department of Electrical Engineering, COMSATS
Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan, E-mail:
nasrullahk@comsats.edu.pk
Mohsin Khan, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of
Engineering
&
Technology,
Peshawar,
Pakistan,
E-mail:
mhsnkhaan@gmail.com
I.
INTRODUCTION
It’s the era of advanced technology and researchers are trying
for further development in the field of automation along with
the application of wireless communication. Automated
system with wireless application is quite popular and useful
today [1]. Out of all the needs of human’s electrical energy is
the basic one and is fundamental for human progress [2,3].
The reason is that most of the appliances whether they are
used in homes, industries or for agriculture purposes mainly
utilize electrical power. Energy meter is used in order to know
that how much energy has been consumed [1]. For this
purpose, energy meter, will have to work constantly in order
to measure the instantaneous value of voltage (V) and current
(A) to give the value of energy (kWh) that has been consumed
[1]. In this way, the energy provider will check the energy
meter for energy units being consumed and will charge the
user according to their set rules [4]. In order to make this
process further simple and facilitate the consumer it is
necessary to automate this process which will facilitate the
users as well as utility providers [3].
Such a monitoring system is applicable wherever there is
usage of electrical energy [1]. In Pakistan, the only electricity
provider is WAPDA. WPADA have three categories for
energy consumption i.e. Domestic consumers, Industrial and
Commercial consumers. These categories are based up on the
price of per unit consumption of energy [5]. Energy meter is a
device that is used to measure the amount of energy being
consumed. Each region has its own worker that will read the
measurements from the energy meter and will make a bill
according to the units consumed. The user will have to rely on
the reading of the meter reader and there are situations that
created problems for the consumers and the reason was false
reading by the reader. This false reading is a common practice
in Pakistan. This procedure is performed every month [4].
In this procedure, the consumer only knows about his
consumption of energy and the bill when the WAPDA
personnel visits the consumer home at the end of the month
and most of the users don’t know how to calculate the energy
consumption. This is of quite importance, because when a
user knows the consumption of energy they can easily manage
their load and can save extra use of energy [6]. They cannot
read energy consumption from their Wattmeter and that is not
an accurate reading [6].
Other disadvantage is the wastage of energy whenever the
electrical energy is used without any sort of control. So, this
project will implement GSM communication through which
user will be informed whenever there is over usage of energy.
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Design of a Smart Energy Meter with Overload Trip Facilities
II.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Whenever the electrical energy is used in uncontrolled
environment so there will be wastage of energy and the
expenses of the consumer will also be high in the form of
electricity bill. One of the method to reduce extra energy
consumption is that we will have to make the residential
community aware of the results of energy consumption. The
consumers can only be aware about the energy consumption
whenever they get notification about their extra energy
consumption.
In Pakistan, the consumer does not know about the extra
energy consumption because they do not know how to
calculate electrical energy that has been used in their house. It
is not possible for the user to calculate the amount of energy
used by using description of each and every equipment. The
energy meter is a device that shows the energy being
consumed and most of the user do not know the bill
calculation from the readings of electricity bill.
The utility provider reads the reading from the energy meter at
the end of the month and calculate electricity bill for that
month. In this procedure, the user only gets the electricity bill
each month but they cannot do anything for energy
management. This proposed design will inform the user
whenever there is extra usage of electricity after exceeding a
particular limit. One can change this limit according to their
needs.
III.
determined according to the tariff that already set by the
provider [3].
This is a conventional way of getting readings from a meter
and this method is prone to errors like human error while
recording readings from the meter [1]. Not only this but in
such a method the user only gets the information about
consumption once a month. These days different research
groups are working on the energy meter reading that is
automatic [3]. Radio-based reading is employed in US [2].
There are two categories of automatic readings from energy
meter, one is wired while the other one is wireless [3]. Wired
system includes Telephone Line Network. The sole purpose
of this approach is to get the record by the direct
communication with the provider by the use of wireless
protocol [1,4].
LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Evolution of Energy Meter
In early stages, electricity was only available to specific
people of the society who have got the affluence. With the
passage of time there was advancement in the field of
technology that also encouraged to fulfill the demands of
common people all over the globe. The history of energy
meter hits decades back that also involves past researchers. In
1870’s when electricity was used only for the purpose of arc
lamps and telegraph and other devices. When Thomas Elva
Edison invented electric bulb, after that the market of power
energy became wide open for the common people in the year
1879. In 1888 AC ampere hour was introduced by Oliver B.
Shallenger for the first time. Finally, the continuous
improvement in the technology of metering resulted in the
enlightenment of common people lives. [7].
Conventional Energy Meters and its Types
Those devices that measure and shows energy in reading form
are known as energy meters. Since 19th century, traditional
meters were used normally [8]. There is usually the exchange
of data among electronic devices in an environment that is
computerized for both the production and generation of
electricity. The working principle of conventional energy
meter is that there is an aluminum disc which is used for the
finding of power usage [8]. Nowadays a digital energy meter
is used but it also has some limitations. A simple single phase
and two wire energy meter is shown below in the figure.
The energy meter whether it is electronic or earlier
electro-mechanical is used to measure the consumption of
energy in kWh and such readings will be recorded by
personnel by visiting each and every house once a month [3].
After the collection of readings from the meter, the recorded
readings will be provided to the provider in order to process
the readings and the amount of consumed energy will be
Fig.1 Conventional Energy meter [8].
Some of the limitations of the conventional energy meters are
as follows.
• These traditional meters have unreliable nature as
consumer will have to wait for the whole month for
the bill.
• A specific mechanical structure supports the energy
measurement process thus they are known as
electromechanical meters.
• To get readings from the meters, a large number of
employees will have to be hired.
• In order to encourage the customers, new tariffs on the
basis of hours cannot be introduced in these meters.
• It is complicated to develop an application for the
energy meter software and also the infrastructure of
supportive network is complex.
Other than the above discussed disadvantages, there are other
features that have been creating a huge gap between the
customer and service provider due to the installation
procedure of traditional meters. There are different types of
energy meters. Although there was development in the energy
meters that helped the consumers about the consumption of
electricity but the energy consumption’s statistics remained
the same.
Below are some of the types of energy meters that are
explained:
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International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6 Issue-6, August 2017
on their energy consumption and electricity bill. It is one of
the devices that belongs to the Advanced Meter Infrastructure
which are responsible to send the readings of meter to the
utility and also to the consumer. Below is a picture of a typical
Smart Energy Meter.
Table 1: Various Electricity Meters [9]
Type
Electrolytic
Meter
Commutator
Meter
Mercury
Motor Meter
D.C Watt
Hour Meter
Single Phase
Induction
Meter
Poly-Phase
Watt Hour
Meter
Description
In this type of meter there is an
electrolyte through which current
passes. One of the limitation is that of
mechanical consideration.
For the variation of current load there
is a Brush-shifting device and
commutators having small diameter
helps in insulation. Its limitations
include not enough load characteristics,
high cost of maintenance and there is no
proper insulation.
Performance was improved when this
meter was introduced. It has a got a rotor
in it which helped in the calibration.
This meter was designed for circuits
having heavy currents where the
coefficient of temperature is high. This
one is equipped with time switch which
indicates the demand. Another benefit is
that it’s a sort of clock type which
reduces variations in voltage due to the
decreased of shunt losses.
In this meter performance is improved
considerably and work has done on the
magnetic conditions in order to control
the consumption of energy.
Whenever the meter has lagging
power factor that shows the features of
current
transformer.
Calibration,
interaction effects and high effects of
shunt loss are the greatest disadvantages
of such a model.
Fig.2 Smart Energy Meter [11].
B. Smart Grid
Smart Grid is one of the major development in the field of
electricity grid. Nowadays the electricity has become weaken
due to the variation of load. The other reason is that of
population that is increasing day by day which shows that the
electrical grids have become fragile. There is a direct relation
between the grid and population.
To make the grid efficient through remote controlling and
improving reliability, measure the consumption during
communication which is assisted by the delivering of
real-time data to customers, provider and vice-versa is known
as Smart Grid [10]. Smart Grids have smart sensors. The
purpose of these sensors is to send back the collected data to
provider and these can point out the location of power failure
and also protect the power lines from overheating. It has the
capability of self-healing operation. Actually, the idea of
Smart Grid gave birth to the idea of Smart Meter. Its
installation will reduce the carbon emission by 5% by the year
2030 and it will have a better impact on the environment [10].
In order to have sustainable environment and prosperity it is
thereby recommended that they should rely on Smart Grids.
C. Smart Meter
Smart meter is a sort of energy meter that is environment
friendly and it is used in order to measure the electrical energy
in units of kWh (Kilowatt-hour). It is a smart device that
facilitate and benefit the customers who want to have control
Smart energy meter will provide accurate data of units
consumed along with other advantages of being smart. It has
the capacity to save the energy consumption on the basis of
hour or less. Smart meter has got other features too like
non-volatile storage of data, connect and disconnect facility
from a remote station, can detect tampering, and have the
facility of bi-directional communication. They can send the
collected data to a central meter. This central meter then
supervises the working of smart meter. From an operational
viewpoint, the installation of smart meter will improve the
management and control on the grid [12]. Some benefits of
the smart energy meter are given below:
• Operational cost is low.
• It saves the time of both consumers and providers by
sending back the reading to the utility provider.
• One can enable the online payment of bill.
• One can greatly decrease the consumption of power
during the high peaks [13].
These smart devices have the feature to sense the internally
generated consumption of power by residents. Energy utilities
get an insight through accurate readings of the meter so that
the customs of habitants using the energy can be changed
accordingly. Eventually, all the functions of a smart meter
will help both the consumer and utility in an efficient way.
D. Power Consumption
Power consumption is that amount of total power that is
utilized by the residential appliances of a consumer. The
power consumption is one of the important feature of
electricity supply. People must be aware and attempt to
preserve energy for the future. Due to the constant use of
electricity, the energy pattern has been varying slowly. The
causes of alteration in the pattern of consumption is due to the
weather conditions or due to the irrelevant use of power by
residents like excessive use of appliances and careless
behavior in utilization of power like switching on the lights
and TV while not watching it. These factors may seem minor
to the user but these have a great impact on the users. As the
power being supplied by the provider is vast so most of the
people do not consider the
preservation of energy.
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Design of a Smart Energy Meter with Overload Trip Facilities
There is a declining trend in the mindset of providers about
the value of energy consumption. Therefore, utilities should
play a vital role in the promotion of Smart Energy meters and
make sure the participation of people in reducing the overuse
of energy by letting them know about effect of their current
usage of electricity.
E. Consumer Behavior
To know the consumption of an appliance in the household of
a consumer is known as consumer’s behavior. In a case when
a consumer has high consumption of energy then we can
conclude that a huge number of device has been used,
meaning that there is a direct relation between the cost and
product of used appliance and the time for which it has been
used. It is vital for energy providers to fulfill the expectations
of the consumers. In most of the cases they are relying on the
monthly bill. They really do not know that which appliance
has high consumption of energy and how the management of
consumption can be made better. These are the factors that is
having a vital role to influence the customer’s behavior. To
better understand the behavior of the people it is necessary to
analyze how the energy is being used. There should be a smart
way to influence the consumer whenever they access the
appliances [14]. In the figure below an installed smart meter is
illustrated to measure the consumption by the appliances.
Fig.3 Smart Meter installed for the measurement of
electrical appliances in a house [15]
F. Surveying the Related Work
In this section, we are going to study the existing work in
terms of socio-economic and technological issues.
Socio-economic issues:
In communication market, the service providers have gained
the satisfaction of the customers by providing their services.
The people’s response about the implementation of Smart
Metering System is discussed in [14]. One can view real-time
consumption of electric energy, switching On and OFF of
appliances, to estimate upcoming bill and getting messages
directly from service provider. In this paper, the pattern of
consumption during the day time and also on weekends are
discussed.
In different countries, a survey has performed on households
and feedbacks from consumers have been obtained in order to
motivate the people and make them energy-conscious. A
socio-technical review was performed for the promotion of
consumption of sustainable energy while using Smart Energy
Meters.
In [16], the results of a survey are presented. This survey was
quantitative and was performed on various consumers. In this
survey Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which is a
theoretical framework is suggested for the views of household
about the Smart devices.
Technological Issues:
There are different ways in which household appliances are
connected with the energy meter. These different ways
include wireless connection, dedicated line, power line
communication and communication that is web-based [17]. A
secure scenario is one in which the meter is connected to the
data-center. Whenever there is connection between the smart
meter and mobile phone then one can observe the power
consumption of a device after it is turned ON or OFF [18].
The research paper, [19] explain each and everything related
to smart meter in Netherlands whether it is installation
functionality or implementations.
Smart Metering includes the installations of few smart meters
that regularly monitors and sends the feedback related to data
to the consumer. By the usage of smart meters consumers will
get energy that will be safe, secure and cheap, the emission of
carbon monoxide will also be reduced [20].
In order to control the capacity of transmission for the smart
appliances the architecture is presented for Smart Energy
Management System [21]. They have created a table for
different parameters like energy prices, consumption and cost
of energy. The energy cost for each and every appliance have
been shown pictorially.
A research paper is presented in [22], in order to review the
significance of Smart metering by taking customers and
business aspects into consideration. Here the advantages of
smart meters are compared with those of mechanical meters.
To have a society that is energy efficient, there must be
awareness among the consumers about the energy
consumption. Different feedbacks, thus were suggested for
saving energy and the improvement of energy efficiency. In
[13], there is discussion about the smart meters in Hungary.
Such meters have got bi-directional feature, one is for tariff
and the other one is for remote control. Different
communication protocols have been addressed like ZigBee,
Home Area Network and Wi-Max.
IV.
MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY
A. Planning of the Project
In performing a project, planning plays a key role so that it
can be accomplished in a smooth and structured way. Project
planning shows the flow of the project from the very first
beginning. This project has been divided in 6 phases.
First phase of the project planning is the selection of the
project. This step is completed after studying the previous
study and after that the selection of main aim and topic was
performed. Among too many research fields one topic will be
selected as a project. Then there will be a presentation of the
project to the concerned supervisor and after the successful
presentation the topic will be finalized as a project.
After the selection of the project topic planning will be shifted
to the second phase. This phase is about the survey related to
the selected project. This phase is more focused on the review
of others work. For this project, journal was studied which is
one of the major resources, and literature was reviewed to get
further information related to the project.
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International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6 Issue-6, August 2017
In parallel with all this study the components used in this
project are studied to know that whether these are available
and suitable.
In this project, Arduino microcontroller have been used as
main processor unit. For the purpose of wireless
communication GSM has been selected. Other components
include current sensor, transformers, regulator and other
passive components.
Phase 3 is about the designing of circuit and to program
Arduino microcontroller.
After the programming of microcontroller next stage is the
interfacing of electronic components to the microcontroller.
This is the crucial step of the project planning as the
functionality of the project depends upon this step and to
avoid any sort of issue precautions should be considered.
Now it’s the turn of 5th phase which includes the testing of the
project on practical Arduino microcontroller. For any sort of
problem troubleshooting will be performed.
The last step is to finalize the project if it is in working
condition and will be presented to the supervisor.
B. Project Description
The main idea of this project revolves around the energy
management by the user. How the user will manage his energy
consumption? It is only possible when he knows how much is
his requirement and how much he is consuming. So, in this
project we have designed such a prototype that will measure
the energy consumption of a user and one can set a threshold
value of energy upon exceeding of which an alert in the form
of message will be sent to both the user and service provider.
This will be beneficial for the user in the sense that will
become aware of how much energy he is consuming so it will
be possible for him that which appliance should be switched
off to make the energy consumption normal. For the service
provider, it is also helpful for finding any short circuit like if
they are getting message continuously.
In order to design this prototype, we have used Arduino
microcontroller whose purpose is to process like the energy
measurement, displaying of load on LCD, switching of relay
and communication of GSM all these are performed by
microcontroller.
Below is the block diagram of our project.
Uno, Current Sensor ACS712, GSM module, LCD and other
passive components.
Arduino Uno
Microcontroller is such a handy device that works according
to the commands of the user. There is a huge variety of
microcontrollers but the selection for a specific project
depends upon the requirement of the user so that one can
program easily.
Each and every microcontroller have their own pros and cons
and use different languages for programming. After surveying
different microcontroller, we have selected Arduino Uno to
be used in our project as it is economical, available and
suitable. For the interfacing of these hardware we have used
the input and output pins of Arduino microcontroller.
Energy Meter
It is a tool that is used for the measurement of energy
consumption by the user. Actually, the calibration of energy
meter is done in kilowatt hour (kWh). The two main
categories of energy meter are analog and digital. Analog
meter is conventional and nowadays obsolete, instead of this
digital meter is used for energy consumption measurement
because of accurate result and it has eliminated the parallax
error. On the other hand, it has benefit for personnel too in
terms of taking readings easily. This project has been
designed for digital energy meter.
GSM Module
In this project as we have explained that consumer and the
service provider will be informed about the energy
consumption whenever the threshold value of energy is
exceeded. So, for this purpose we have used Global System
for Mobile communication (GSM). GSM is a standard for
wireless communication and one can send data through this in
the form of SMS. GSM has been selected for communication
due to the following advantages.
1. It is responsive.
2. It is economical.
3. Data is sent in encrypted form thus secure.
4. It is efficient.
There are various types of GSM modems each having
different frequency of operation and it depends upon the
residing country. Here in this project we have selected
GSM900A GSM module whose operating frequencies are
900MHz and 1900Mhz which is compatible with our
network. It is used for the purpose of sending message from
the hardware we have designed to the consumer and the
service provider. Below is the figure of GSM modem which
we have used.
Fig.4 Block Diagram of the Project.
C. Components Used
Before going to implement the circuit into practical hardware
it is vital to study the components before buying. It is also
important whether the components are suitable for the
specific function or not so to avoid further failure. The
components which are used in this project includes Arduino
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Fig.5 GSM 900A module.
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Design of a Smart Energy Meter with Overload Trip Facilities
Birth of SMS
SMS stands for Short Messaging Service which is just like
paging but SMS does not have the restriction that phone will
be active and inside the range. One can send SMS to a user
whether it lie in the same cell or roaming outside in other
cells.
SMS is a technology through which one can send
information in the form of text message among mobile
phones. Information in text may be in the form of words,
numbers or it may be in the form of alphanumeric symbols.
For the first-time SMS was used introduced in the first phase
of GSM and it is believed that first short message was sent in
DEC, 1992 and it was from PC to a cell phone and the
network was UK’s Vodafone GSM. The maximum length of a
short message is 160 characters.
SMS is a service that is first stored and then forwarded. It
means that there is not any sort of direct transmission of
messages between transmitter and receiver but it is first stored
at SMS center and then sent to the receiver end. Each and
every provider which provide the service of GSM has a single
or multiple dedicated center for SMS.
SMS has the feature of delivery. In paging, there was no
delivery report and one was unaware that whether the message
has been delivered or not. In SMS technology, there is this
feature where the sender will be notified in the form of
delivery report that whether the message has been received or
pending.
There are various ways of sending SMS. One can
concatenate several messages in to a single one and can
compress information having size of 160 characters.
Modes of SMS
One can use GSM voice or GSM data in order to receive and
send SMS at the same time. It is possible due to the fact that
whether it is voice or data call, these are transferred over the
radio channel. While on the other hand SMS do not use radio
channel instead it uses the signaling path. Due to this
property, there is less probability of SMS failing due to
network engagement. One can also get an SMS while having a
call.
In order to avail the service of SMS, one will have to
subscribe it and also to a hardware, one will have to subscribe
a network that can support the service of SMS. For the user
the operators will activate the service of SMS.
Advantages of GSM
1. Dute to its authenitication of message it is considered
as responsive.
2. It is uqbiquitous i.e. its coverage is nowadays
everywhere.
3. GSM is economical and anybody can afford it easily.
4. It is secure due to encryption.
LCD
There are different ways for the display of information like
one can use seven sigment display and one can also use Liquid
Crystal Diplay. Here we have used LCD for the display of
how much load a consumer is using right now. Through the
use of LCD one knows the data that has been processed by the
microcontroller and the user can get the required output from
the hardware on the LCD. The programmer can also get help
from it by checking the output of the program at that moment
whether the code is correct or not. There are different sort of
LCD and one can get upon their requirments. Here we have
used 20*4 LCD i.e. it has 20 columns and two rows. It has
been shown in the figure below.
Fig.6 20 x 4 LCD.
D. Designing of Three Phase Smart Energy Meter
In this project, main aim is to design a three-phase energy
meter which is not a conventional energy meter but it is a
smart. Smart in a way that it has got the facility to
communicate with the user. The communication between the
energy meter and the user is done through GSM
communication. GSM standard has the technology of SMS so
we have used this technology for communication. This whole
project revolves around the load management like how a user
can be informed about his energy consumption and how it is
controlled whenever there is over consumption of energy. The
main idea is that in this project three-phase system is
considered and for each and every phase energy consumption
is calculated. After the energy calculation, a specific limit for
each phase is defined i.e. whenever that specific pre-defined
limit is exceeded then the user will be informed in the form of
message that for your specific phase the energy consumption
has exceeded the limit. The user will not only get a message
for each phase but the load on that phase will trip. After
getting message, the user will manage the load and once the
load is below that specific limit then the switch will close and
the user will get mains supply for that specific phase. In this
way, the user will get information about his consumption and
will be able to reduce it which was not possible in the earlier
energy meter.
1) Power Calculation
In order to manage the energy consumption first we will have
to measure the power and after that management is performed.
First, we are going to measure the current and voltage for each
and every phase so that power can be calculated. Below is
given in detail how we have calculated different parameters.
Current Measurement
In order to measure the current for each phase a current sensor
i.e. ACS712 has been used. It is connected in series with each
phase. This sensor gives quite precise readings of the AC
current. It comes in different ratings i.e. 5A, 20A and 30A.
The one which we have used is 30 amperes. It is compatible
with microcontrollers like PIC, ATMEL and ARDUINO.
ACS712 works under the principle of Hall effect named after
Dr. Edwin Hall, discovered it in 1879. This principle states
that when a conductor that carries current is placed in a
magnetic field, a voltage is produced at its edges which is
perpendicular to the direction of current and magnetic field.
In the figure below it is illustrated
in detail.
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A thin sheet of semiconductor which is called Hall element
carries current (I) is placed in a magnetic field (B). Magnetic
field is perpendicular to the direction of current flowing in the
sheet. Lorentz force will distribute the current in the sheet and
it will be no more uniform due to which potential difference is
created across the edges of the semiconductor sheet and it is
perpendicular to the direction of current and field. This
generated voltage is known as Hall voltage and is in
microvolts. The Hall voltage has a direct relation with the
magnitudes of both the current and magnetic field. If one of
them is known then the Hall voltage can be used to find
another.
Fig.7 Hall Effect Principle
This sensor is provided in a small, surface mount SOIC8
package. This package contains a precise, low-offset and
linear Hall sensor circuit that has a copper conduction path
which is located near the surface of the dye. When the current
flows through the copper conductor it will produce a magnetic
field that is sensed by the built-in Hall element. The magnetic
field strength is directly proportional to the magnitude of the
current through the path of conduction which gives a linear
relationship between the output Hall voltage and input
conduction current. The IC package also includes an on-chip
signal conditioner and a filter circuit that stabilizes and
enhances the generated Hall voltage up to a level that can be
easily measured by the ADC channel of microcontroller.
Connection with ARDUINO
This sensor has three pins that must be connected with
ARDUINO, out of these three two pins are used for the power
supply and one is used for its analog output. It has two inputs
through which current is measured. Across these two pins
load is connected through which current is going to be
measured. The following figure will illustrate the pinouts of
this sensor.
sensors gives analog output so these are connected to the
analog pins of the ARDUINO. A0 pin is used to get the
current from phase I, output of phase II is connected to A3
while the output of phase III current sensor is given to the A5
analog pin of ARDUNO. These values of current measured
through ACS712 are stored as variables that are defined in
programming.
Voltage Measurement
As we have already discussed that for measuring power we
will have to find current and voltage so we have used ACS712
sensor for current measurement while now we are going to
measure the voltage for each and every phase. The block
diagram of the voltage measurement is given below.
Fig.9 Block Diagram of Voltage Measurement Circuit
Transformer
The function of transformer is to stepdown the mains voltage
so that the microcontroller can measure it. So, for this purpose
we have used 220-12Vac transformer. For each phase, we
have used a separate transformer.
Bridge Rectifier
The output of transformer is fed into the rectifier section in
order to convert AC power to DC power. It is necessary
because we know that a microcontroller cannot measure AC
signal and for that purpose we will have to convert it into DC
signal. For conversion of AC into DC power we have used
bridge rectifier for each phase.
Filter
As we know that the output of rectifier is not a pure DC signal
but it is a pulsating DC. In order to get a pure DC signal, we
have used capacitor whose function here is to give almost
pure DC voltage.
Voltage Divider Circuit
The output of filter is in between 13V and 15V DC which
cannot be given to microcontroller as it can measure voltage
not more than 5V DC. In order, to give 5V to the
microcontroller we have used a series combination of
resistors. The output of this circuit is almost 5V which is
given to the analog pin of ARDUINO.
Fig.8 Pin outs and connection of ACS712 with ARDUINO
Fig.10 Voltage Divider Circuit
In this project, this sensor is used for the current measurement
across all the three phases. Three current sensors are used in
this project and connected to the ARDUINO. As theses
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Design of a Smart Energy Meter with Overload Trip Facilities
In our project R1=2k Ὠ, R2= 1k Ὠ, Vin=15V and Vout =5V.
Calibration
Through the above circuit we have converted 220V ac to 5V
DC so that ARDUINO can measure it. In order to display
measured AC voltage, we have done calibration.
1023----------------------220
Any other---------------- x
x = (220/1023) * any other.
This “x” is AC voltage that is going to be displayed on LCD.
E. Opening of Relay
In this project, the idea was that if on a specific phase a
specific limit of load is exceeded then the phase should open
and load need to be trip. So, for this purpose we have set a
limit of load i.e. 190 Watts, so whenever this is crossed the
relay will open and will stop the mains to the load. At the same
time, a message will be sent to the user that “system overload
(Phase 1)”. We have used three relays for each and every
phase and the limit for all the phases is 190 Watts. This
threshold value is just for testing the hardware and it can be
changed to any value and anytime.
A relay is a special type of switch that is ON and OFF by an
electromagnet. Whenever a small amount of current flows
through the coil of an electromagnet it excites the coil and a
magnetic field is set around it which attracts an iron armature.
This armature is moveable and moves according to the
excitation of coil. Through a relay one can control a heavy
load just by using small current.
In this project, we have used 12v relays which means that the
coil will excite with 12V DC. For this purpose, we have used a
separate 12V DC supply. Alongwith this power supply we
have used transistor 2N3904 for the purpose of switching and
it also amplify the output current of microcontroller which is
20mA. This current is not enough to excite the coil of a relay
so we have used transistor to amplify the current. The figure
below shows the connection of transistor with a relay, and in
this way, we have used in our project for all the three phases.
For phase I we have used a touch button, this button is
connected to a digital pin 4 of ARDUINO. When a user press
this button so it will make the pin 7 high which is connected to
phase I relay and relay will be closed.
In phase II we have used an auto reclose technique which
means that when load at phase II is trip and relay is open. So,
after a delay of minute it will reclose automatically.
Phase III is smarter than first two in a way that when load
exceeds the limit so the user will get a message that contains
“ALERT! Manage your load” but the relay will not open and
load will not trip. There will be a delay of two minutes, so if
the user manages his load with in this time interval then the
relay will not open otherwise after two minutes relay will
open. And the relay will reclose once the load is reduced than
that pre-defined limit.
G. Circuit Diagram.
Fig.12 Circuit Diagram of Smart Energy Meter (For
Three Phase AC Supply System).
H. Project Flowchart
Fig.11 Interfacing of Relay with ARDUINO through
2N3904.
Digital pin 7 is used for phase I, digital pin 6 for phase II while
pin 5 is used for phase III.
F. Reclosing of Relay
We have discussed earlier that there is a specific pre-defined
limit of load for each phase, means that whenever that amount
of load is exceeded by the user then the relay will open and a
message must be sent to the user.
Now when the relay is open and the user has managed his
load, so it is necessary that after managing load the relay must
be closed so that the user gets the mains supply. For each
phase, we have used different techniques for reclosing.
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Fig.13 Project Flowchart
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V.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. Programming Output
In order to program Arduino microcoontroller we have used
Arduino IDE which is the compiler specially designed for
arduino microcontroller.
Defining A Library
In our project, besides Arduino we have used other
components too like LCD, GSM module and ACS712 current
sensor. For their proper functionality, it is necessary that we
should add their libraries first. We have also declared some of
the variables and have initialized them. In the figure 14 we
have shown that portion of the code in which we have
declared different libraries.
GSM Code
We have used GSM communication on our project so that the
consumer is informed in the form of text message whenever
the load consumption exceeds the threshold valve. Here the
maximum is any watts and we have set the threshold value as
190 watts. For GSM to work properly we have added GSM
library and some other code which is given below.
Fig.16 GSM communication program.
Fig.14 Declaration of libraries.
Void Setup
This portion of the code is executed by the microcontroller
only once after the compilation and loading to
microcontroller. When it is successfully compiled and loaded
to the microcontroller it is executed just a single time so here
normally those settings are performed which needs only one
time declaration like here we have declared input and output
pins.
Load Calculation Code
In order to find the power for each and every phase we will
have to find the current and voltage so we have done that
through current sensor and voltage sensor. Now, power for
each phase will be calculated through microcontroller by a
pre-defined formula of power.
Fig.17 Calculation of load from LED blinking.
B. Designed Hardware
In this section we are going to demonstrate the real hardware
which we have designed in order to accomplish our task of
tripping off the load whenever the threshold is exceeded and
message will be send to two
different cell phones.
Fig.15 Declaration of pins as inputs and outputs.
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Design of a Smart Energy Meter with Overload Trip Facilities
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Fig.18 Overall designed hardware of the project.
C. Discussion
In this project we started with a proposed technique of energy
management from the user perspective so that how one can
aware the user from the energy management so that he can
manage his load and can decrease the bill and also take part in
the energy saving. So first we studied different components
that are needed for this project, selected a microcontroller that
is economical and fulfill the requirements of our project.
ARDUINO UNO is used for this purpose and it is
programmed in C language, using Arduino IDE software as
compiler and successfully compiled our code and then it was
successfully loaded to microcontroller. We interfaced
different electronic components like GSM, ACS712 and
Relays to the Arduino on veero board and tested our
hardware. Current and voltage are measured for all the three
phases and power is calculated according which management
of load take place. Whenever the predefined threshold value
was exceeded a message was send to the user displaying
“System Overlaod”. For each phase, different technique of
reclosing is used, Phase I is reclosed by pressing a button,
Phase II reclosed after a delay of one minute while phase III
will reclose upon decreasing the load.
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Naeem Javed received his B-Tech (Honours)
Degree in Electrical Technology from Sarhad
University of Science & Information
Technology, Peshawar in 2011 and M.Sc.
Electrical Engineering Degree from COMSATS
Institute of Information Technology Islamaabad
in 2017. Currently working as a lecturer in
Chakdara Polytechnic Institute, Chakdara,
Lower Dir KPK.
Published By:
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
& Sciences Publication Pvt. Ltd.
International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-6 Issue-6, August 2017
Muhammad Aamir Shafi received his B.Sc
Electrical Engineering degree from Bahauddin
Zakaria University, Multan in 2011 and M.Sc.
Electrical Engineering degree from COMSATS
Institute of Information Technology Islamabad in
2016. Currently he is PhD Scholor in High
Voltage from Comsats Institute of Information
Technology, (Atd) Islamabad. He is also working
as a Lecturer in COMWAVE Institute of
Information and Technology (Atd) Islamabad. His research interests include
renewable energy system design and integration with power system, Energy
management system design Protection and Control and High Voltage
Technology.
Dr Nasrullah Khan joined Comsats Institute of
Information Technology Islamabad as Foreign
Faculty Professor in 2006. After end of HEC
FFHS in 2014, he continued as contract professor
in CIIT. In last nine years he has published 13
research papers in impact factor journals, 16 in
Non-Impact factor international journals and 23
papers in international and local conferences. He
has written seven books on lightning, universe, extremism and sustainable
energy alternatives in Urdu. He is senior member of IEEE (USA) and
lifetime member of PEC (Pak). He evaluates HEC proposals, international
journals and conferences papers. He is member of BOS (CIIT), PIEAS
(BOS), MUST (BOS), BOF (CIIT) and CIIT Academic Council.
Mohsin Khan Completed B.S Electronics
Engineering from UET, Peshawar in 2011 and
got M.S Degree in Electrical Communication
from UET, Peshawar in 2016. Working in
Chakdara Polytechnic Institute, Chakdara as a
Lecturer since Aug, 2015.
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